During her visit, Minister Klever toured the CarePay offices, engaging with Dutch and Kenyan entrepreneurs at the forefront of healthcare innovation. CarePay was founded in 2016 through a Dutch-Kenya collaboration between PharmAccess, Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA) and Kenyan telco Safaricom. The company has expanded business to the UAE, with its technology now being explored as a model to address fragmentation in the Dutch healthcare system.
The Minister and her delegation witnessed a live demonstration of CarePay’s platform, also known as M-TIBA in East Africa, showcasing how patients register for health insurance on their mobile phone, how financial claims are being paid in real time, and how the system creates accountability on claim payments. Importantly, the technology gives patients control of their data, allowing them to share data with other clinics which improves the care process. The platform has already connected 4 million Kenyan and over 4000 healthcare providers, and has contracted with several major insurance companies in the health market.
She also met with key stakeholders, including CEOs of private insurance and healthcare providers, who shared insights on how digital innovations are improving the quality and profitability of their business models. This included an introduction to the Medical Credit Fund’s (MCF’s) digital lending program, which enables healthcare providers to easily access loans using their mobile phone, with short processing times, flexible repayment and no collateral required. This enables healthcare entrepreneurs, many of which are women, to grow their businesses, improve their services and buy essential medical equipment. So far MCF has loaned USD 195 million to over 2,300 African healthcare businesses, with a loan repayment rate of 96%.
The delegation also visited an AAR Clinic at Sarit Center in Westlands, Nairobi, part of a wider network of 29 outpatient clinics under AAR Healthcare, one of Kenya’s leading private healthcare providers. The AAR network, serving over 300,000 patients annually, has been a key beneficiary of digital innovations enabled through a partnership with PharmAccess and CarePay. The Sarit Center branch alone handles an average of 112 patients daily, with 17% of them accessing services via MTIBA. The system has reduced insurance claim processing time from 77 days to just 3 days, significantly improving cash flow for healthcare providers and enhancing the patient experience.
Nicole Spieker, CEO of PharmAccess: “This technology gives patients control of their data, allowing them to share data with other clinics which improves the care process. Africa is well-positioned to leapfrog health innovations that can be adapted globally, driving global need for health innovation.”
